Vertigo is officially dead

[superduperman]

Welp, DC made it official. Vertigo is officially no more. From now on, any and all DC projects will fall under three distinct labels. DCKids, DC, Black Label. Depending on the age range of the audience.

https://www.cbr.com/dc-retires-vertigo-new-labels-2020/

There've been all kinds of pieces written about the death of Vertigo and how it happened and I won't rehash those here. But I will say this was completely unavoidable and another sign of mismanagement at DC. Titles like Sandman will still be published but they'll probably fall under the Black Label line or something.

[leo619]

I said this in another thread, but I'll place this here as well

"So I'll be honest, I'm not sure how I feel about DC retiring the Vertigo line. Their logic makes a lot of sense, but their wording is false. They stated that nudity, edgier violence and etc is more mainstream over the years. But then I recall the censorship over batman damned where they decided showing a nude batman was going too far. And this was regarding DC's "mature lineup" So safe to say I'm highly suspect that vertigo is going to have their content neutered after the merger."

[bretmaverick2]

It it’s just the imprint. I take it to mean the titles will be folded into DC BLACK LABEL.

[spirit2011]

I said this in another thread, but I'll place this here as well

"So I'll be honest, I'm not sure how I feel about DC retiring the Vertigo line. Their logic makes a lot of sense, but their wording is false. They stated that nudity, edgier violence and etc is more mainstream over the years. But then I recall the censorship over batman damned where they decided showing a nude batman was going too far. And this was regarding DC's "mature lineup" So safe to say I'm highly suspect that vertigo is going to have their content neutered after the merger."

Violence seems to be ok,

male nudity, sex and religiosity seems like a big no.

I really not sure if the problem is the brand. I think it is editorial and behind the scenes

[ohfellow]

Some DC titles are now T (Teen), some are T+ (Teen Plus). I haven't checked whether the rating tends to change according to the issue, or if a title retains a rating for the whole run.

The current definitions DC publishes are:

https://www.dccomics.com/ratings

T - 12 and up (May contain mild violence, language and/or suggestive themes.)
T+ - 15 and up May contain moderate violence, mild profanity, graphic imagery and/or suggestive themes.)

The new DC line will be 13 and up. And this will match Marvel's T+ rating. Marvel also has a 15+ (Parental Advisory) rating, which DC won't have anymore.

Looks like DC will match film PG-13, and Black Label will match film R. That alignment might make things easier for parents, teachers, and retailers. But, the standards for scoring will likely be different, since no one is quite sure how decisions are made when films get rated.

And who at DC is going to be carefully monitoring this? Many books have so many editorial mistakes, you wonder when they would have time to rate books. Or maybe it's that they are so busy rating them that they have no time to check them for errors.

[iron chimp]

Seems very odd to relaunch it alongside black label (or after?) then say.. oh we are cancelling it to sort branding and age limits out. Hmmm... quite the u-turn.

Sales looked pretty weak but I wouldn't be surprised if second coming killed the imprint - gotta get all that sweet family value summer blockbuster movie merchandise cash.

[kjn]

Vertigo being gone was known, but I'm surprised for them shuttering Zoom and Ink as well. DC Kids just sounds boring compared to Zoom, and Ink was off to a strong start with its own identity. I wouldn't be surprised if both of those efforts to gain new readers will be neutered and lose direction soon.

[iron chimp]

"That kind of material is now mainstream across all genres"

If only... I can't find anything today in floppies to rival vertigo at its finest.

[Lee Stone]

Coulda swore DC was already T+.

[cranger]

As someone with kids, seeing something branded kids is 100x easier to recognize than something branded zoom.

This likely was not related to anything specific other than constant shuffling in the offices overseeing everything and someone wondering why they had 15 different brands of comics and not being able to find anyone who could tell them what any of them meant.

Aside from the diehard fans here, the wider (potential) audience could care less if Sandman was printed with DC Black or Vertigo, but WB sure cares because the brand is stronger.

[Vampire Savior]

I don't really get why this was much of a deal to begin with. The modern Vertigo didn't look to be producing any decent content anyway. Nothing like its earlier days under Karen Berger. I considered it a whole different thing, just with the same name, so it doesn't seem like much of a loss to me. I'm trying to think of an example, and the only thing that comes to mind is when MTV or MTV 2 brought back Headbanger's Ball years and years after the original iconic show ended. It was basically a whole different thing using the same name.

Besides, ll of DC's imprints were silly, useless, and there were too many of them. I would have gotten rid of most of them, too, if I was a high-up.

[Jim Kelly]

What about properties created under the Vertigo umbrella? For instance, THE KITCHEN is coming out soon as a motion picture--that's a Vertigo property--how do they get around that?

From what I understand (which isn't much), Karen Berger was able to make Vertigo such a critical success by giving a bigger piece of the pie to creators--so they had an incentive to come to Vertigo. Then Warner Brothers didn't like that they were giving creators these good deals and they cut that out--resulting in not as many creators bringing their best ideas to the imprint. But those old creator deals still exist--and Vertigo had some pretty good stuff back then.

[leo619]

Violence seems to be ok,

male nudity, sex and religiosity seems like a big no.

I really not sure if the problem is the brand. I think it is editorial and behind the scenes

I think it's a combination of both. The main question is what's happening behind the scenes. Very rarely do brands get merge and yet nothing happens to the staff. If vertigo's editorial now fall under DC's black label, they will most likely fall under the same restrictions as well.

[Bruce Wayne]

From what I understand (which isn't much), Karen Berger was able to make Vertigo such a critical success by giving a bigger piece of the pie to creators--so they had an incentive to come to Vertigo. Then Warner Brothers didn't like that they were giving creators these good deals and they cut that out--resulting in not as many creators bringing their best ideas to the imprint. But those old creator deals still exist--and Vertigo had some pretty good stuff back then.

It was I believe in regards to movie rights and such related things for creator owned work. Alan Horn the former studio head at WB wanted more control for WB so that WB could use them as fodder for moves. In turn that just caused a slow exodus of creators from Vertigo.

[cgh]

It was I believe in regards to movie rights and such related things for creator owned work. Alan Horn the former studio head at WB wanted more control for WB so that WB could use them as fodder for moves. In turn that just caused a slow exodus of creators from Vertigo.

Yeah, I'm sure everyone here knows this already, but basically Image refashioned itself into the new Vertigo and the home of creator-owned properties. Big-name current titles include Monstress (Marjorie Liu), East of West (Hickman), Criminal (Brubaker and Philips), etc. The Vertigo name wasn't enough. At the end of the day, creators want to get paid and own their stuff.